


how the earth looks from above

by possibilityleft



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Tag, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-09-03
Packaged: 2018-04-08 21:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4320762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possibilityleft/pseuds/possibilityleft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oneshots requested by various users.  Mostly gen and episode-related, some fluffy and femslashy.  All chapter titles from various songs by Shakey Graves.</p><p> <em>"But all of the other TV programs are cheerful," Pearl said.  A piece of toast with legs was crying, possibly because it had fallen onto the butter side.</em></p><p>  <em>"This one is too.  They take care of each other," Steven said.  Some kind of jelly or jam was helping the toast to its feet.</em> </p><p>  <em>"It's still crying," Pearl pointed out.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. i'm boiled like the seas

**Author's Note:**

> I take episode-related requests in my [tumblr ask box](http://possibilityleft.tumblr.com/ask).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slight Pearl/Rose, mostly Pearl gen. For anon, why Pearl doesn't eat.

It was only for a little while. The Gems never stayed on a planet for very long, and never left anything worthwhile in their wake. Rose was an outlier, in that she liked to experience a planet before kindergartens removed all of the essential minerals and built new Gems. Once she got a kindergarten established, and the techs could be left in charge, she traveled all over the world, looking at animals and rock formations and plants.

Pearl thought it was boring, but when Rose asked her to tag along, she never said no. She didn't see the point when they both knew that none of it would last. Well, the canyons and mountains were often interesting, but they'd be mined out before they could add another layer to their sediment. Pearl liked the solid feeling of the rock, though, the smoothness of a stone patiently worn away by a river.

Rose liked living things. She smelled flowers and talked to sentients and even touched animals. Sometimes she ate food and processed it! Pearl couldn't even imagine. It was one thing to smell or even taste, but to digest?! She never said anything to Rose about it, but it just seemed... vulgar. Rose always offered to share, but Pearl couldn't, she just couldn't. She usually left the hut or the area when Rose was eating. The smell, the sounds! The way teeth clacked together!

She was a Gem. She didn't need any of that. And even after she'd been on Earth for years, even after she tried to accept, again and again, that she wouldn't be leaving, not until her gem was worn down to dust, she couldn't bear to eat.

She remembered all of Rose's favorite foods. And she learned to bake, because Rose loved pies, and there was a science to combining ingredients and applying heat that Pearl enjoyed. She didn't even mind doing the shopping, although usually she left that to Greg. She could interact with a meal, but not in the most intimate way.

She held herself back, like she did with so many other things, watching the shoreline turn to sand.


	2. still you call me from the moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garnet gen. For anon, what Garnet felt like trapped in an eternal future vision loop with Meat Beat Mania.

At first, it was a simple distraction. She got the hang of it right away -- it was primitive, so far as training exercises went, but it made Steven happy, and it wouldn't be a terrible way to test her reflexes.

Also, the music was catchy.

She shifted the maracas right to left and back again, following the screen, and because it was slow at first she didn't bother to open her third eye. She didn't want to confuse herself seeing four moves ahead. But the game began to move faster and faster, working on a consistent algorithm that would have already defeated Steven. It was nothing to her; she shook faster, enjoying the weight of them in her hands.

She would defeat this game, and then she could leave. There were several tasks that she could do while waiting for another corrupted Gem to come to her attention. The burning room could use a good scrub; the lava got everywhere.

Garnet played, and when it became necessary, she eased open her third eye. Her hands moved faster and faster. She was rooted to the ground in concentration.

"Hey, lady, I gotta close up," someone said, outside Garnet's field of vision. She ignored the speaker until they went away. He spent some time pushing hard at her leg, but she didn't budge. Eventually all external light faded, but she didn't bother to note when this occurred. The light eventually returned. The speaker eventually returned, but she was _busy_.

For a while there was a second player, but Garnet barely registered. All distractions were conquered. Her visor, lost, was ignored. The screen went dark, and she corrected it, sending a satisfying jolt of pent-up energy into the machine. The second player was defeated, and again. Nothing mattered now but the pattern that would play behind her eyelids if she ever closed them. She saw everything. She saw --

Steven.

She summoned her visor and fought off a momentary pain, her future vision feeling like an overworked muscle. It had been a long time since she'd been captured in this manner, distracted from her real duties. For too long, there had been nothing but the game. But Steven had rescued her. She hadn't expected that at all, her vision tunneled into the flash and fight of the game.

She thanked him and saw the fight ahead of her -- against real enemies this time, and perhaps she shouldn't have been so kind to the little Gem monsters. Tiny things were her weakness. She flew into combat, her eyes tracking real beasts, real allies, and she was glad, then, to be alive.

(Later, she gave Steven a dripping, algae-encrusted bag of coins that she found taking a walk in the ocean, in order to make up for the ones he lost. He was kind enough not to tell her that none of them were quarters, tucking them away in his room along with the rocks she liked to give him.)


	3. I always felt so hypnotized and not by you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl and Steven gen, Pearl's confusion about Crying Breakfast Friends.
> 
> (I wrote this previously to Cry For Help but really we still don't know anything about this weird show.)

Pearl tried, she really did, to understand humans. She resisted the idea for a long time, preferring to stick to the company of the Crystal Gems, but after Greg, well--

She learned a lot about humans, whether or not she wanted to. She was having to learn all new things about Steven now that he was living with them. It was easier this time, since she'd had some previous experience and could guess at motivations and interests. Steven was pretty good at entertaining himself, when they were all busy, and rarely resentful or rude.

He hadn't had much of a set schedule living with Greg, but she learned his preferred rhythms. He liked to eat breakfast late and lunch early, and visited his dad every day in early afternoon. He went to bed early, but was rarely awake before mid-morning.

Saturdays were different because of cartoons. They were confusing -- Pearl suspected she simply didn't have all the necessary cultural references -- but none more so than Crying Breakfast Friends. Patiently, Steven tried to explain it to her, naming off the characters and the source of their upsets as if that simple summary should be enough.

"But all of the other TV programs are cheerful," Pearl said. A piece of toast with legs was crying, possibly because it had fallen onto the butter side.

"This one is too. They take care of each other," Steven said. Some kind of jelly or jam was helping the toast to its feet.

"It's still crying," Pearl pointed out.

"Oh, that's because they don't know where Sad Apple is," Steven said. "She'll come back next episode."

"Right," Pearl said, hesitantly. She wondered how long she had to watch before she could get up and do the dishes.


	4. they used to wear out my ballroom shoes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl and Lion gen, for the prompt, "What it's like living with lion? Pearl probably finds sooo many half dead gem creatures and birds in the house."

Pearl hadn't wanted a pet. Gems didn't keep pets. Taking care of other beings was a waste of resources. Homeworld frowned on waste. Steven had asked about it a few times but Pearl hadn't been willing to commit to anything larger than a bowl of fish. Steven wanted a beast he could cuddle, and settled for stuffed animals.

But Garnet said he could keep Lion. Pearl didn't know why; the flippant statement about Amethyst covered something deeper, she was sure. Maybe it was that Lion reminded them -- all of them -- of Rose. He looked like a beast she would imagine up in an afternoon to entertain them, banishing him back into her room when they were done. 

But Lion stuck around. When he felt like it, he made his presence known. Too often this was in the form of a mess, which was apparently traditional for felines, based on what Pearl had viewed when watching nature television with Steven. It didn't make Pearl any happier when she stepped in it, however.

"Ugh!" she shrieked involuntarily, her foot soaked in hot, wet gunk. She didn't want to look down and examine it too closely. She knew it was some creature that Lion had dragged in and placed in front of the temple door like a gift. Sometimes, terrifyingly, there were gems embedded in them. They all wondered where he found them, but he couldn't or wouldn't reveal his secrets. He simply stared at them with that impersonal, impenetrable gaze of his.

None of the other Gems were around -- Steven was out playing with Connie, Garnet was off doing her own things, and Pearl thought Amethyst was taking a nap, although in her mess of a room, Pearl didn't know how.

So of course Pearl had to clean it up. It was probably unsanitary, and she didn't want Steven touching it. She was in the middle of scrubbing the last of the stain out of the floor when a shadow fell over her silently. She looked up.

Lion stared at her. Then, deliberately, he opened his mouth and dropped something with wings onto the floor. It made a small choking noise. Pearl reached down and plucked out a gem shard embedded in the beast's chest. It disappeared in the characteristic puff of smoke, so at least that was helpful, but it left... detritus. 

Lion pushed his cold nose at Pearl's hand.

"What do you want?" she asked him. He nudged her again. She sighed.

"Yes," she said, "good job," and for a moment, rested a hand in his mane. Then she bent back to her work, and after a while, the shadow left.


	5. you left your heart in my chest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl/Garnet, for the prompt character in distress. Set directly after Keeping It Together, with spoilers for that episode.

When the Crystal Gems returned to the temple, Garnet disappeared almost immediately. Pearl had to coax the story out of Steven. By the time he was finished, Pearl was struck with a deep down horror that made her cold with anger and terror. No wonder Garnet had been upset. No wonder she'd been silent while they were bubbling the hand monsters.

Pearl hugged Steven and talked to him until he stopped crying, and then Amethyst offered to take him down the boardwalk for ice cream. She was probably just as disturbed, but better at hiding it than anyone. Pearl wanted to reach out to her, but she was still trying to learn how to do that again. She let Steven and Amethyst go, hand in hand out the door.

She wasn't sure where she'd find Garnet, but she knew she had to look. She was right on the first try. Garnet was on the strawberry battlefield, and she was digging. She glanced up quickly when Pearl approached.

"What are you doing?" Pearl asked her, staying back uncertainly.

"We thought we found all of them," Garnet said, her voice muffled against the dirt, "but we couldn't have. We have to find them _all_."

"Garnet!" Pearl leaned over until she was at eye level with Garnet. "Digging up this entire battlefield would take _years_. Let the gem shards be. It's kinder that way."

Garnet was shaking, dirty up to her elbows. She was on all fours, digging without any tools, scooping dirt out of the ground with her gauntlets. She didn't seem to notice her own scrapes or bruises. She shook her head violently.

"No, it's not! Didn't you understand? They were buried together, they were lost Gems buried together and brought back to life by some twisted tech playing kindergarten! We can't let that happen to anyone else!"

Garnet was shouting. Despite her feverish digging, she hadn't found a single gem shard.

"No one should be forced to fuse! No one should have to feel like that!" Garnet continued. Kneeling, she was shorter than Pearl, and Pearl had to lean down a little to grab Garnet's hands. She wasn't as strong as Garnet, not by a long shot, but Garnet was always gentle with her, and she quit resisting.

"We'll stop them," Pearl said, although she had no idea how. She pushed Garnet's head into her chest, stroking her hair. Garnet wrapped her arms around Pearl's waist, her gauntlets disappearing. She was smearing dirt onto Pearl's clothes, but Pearl pushed away that concern. This was more important. Usually she was the one coming to Garnet in need of comfort. When Garnet felt upset, she withdrew. Pearl had to chase her. She was pretty good at that.

Garnet was crying. Pearl held her and thought about all the things she'd been taught about fusion when she was still living among Gemkind. Fusions were untrustworthy, unable to make up their minds, prone to outbursts and unstable. Fusions were temporary measures only, and there was always a danger of losing your individuality in the fusion. Fusions had their own minds and opinions separate from their component gems, and that often made them unsuitable for any kind of work. Fusions combined the weaknesses of both gems, and rarely did the strengths balance out. Fusion was an inappropriate response to pair bonding. Fusion was a disgusting biological response to attraction.

Garnet made all of those statements a lie. She had a stable personality and a strength of will that Pearl admired. She was more than her component gems -- she was her own person. She loved being herself. Ruby and Sapphire would always have each other. But sometimes Garnet needed someone to be hers as well. 

After Rose's death, they had clung to each other. All three of them had held together, really, but then Amethyst had pulled away, and neither of them were sure how to react. Greg said she was growing up, but that wasn't really a concept that the Gems were familiar with. It wasn't long until it was just the two of them, finding comfort walking the beach at night, pulling down the fence that had done no good in the end. Amethyst became defiant and irritating, but Garnet never changed.

Although she had, and Pearl had too. Now Garnet only showed her softer side to Pearl, rarely, and to Steven when she wanted to. They all made their exceptions for Steven.

Garnet's sobs slowed and her breathing calmed. They'd all picked up the habit of regular breathing in Earth's atmosphere -- it made it easier to talk when they wanted to, even if it wasn't necessary for their own health.

Garnet mumbled something into Pearl's waist.

"What?" Pearl asked, and then Garnet was pulling her down into her lap. It was a comforting, familiar position, and Pearl wrapped her hands around Garnet's shoulders automatically.

"We won't let it happen again," Garnet said. She lifted one of her hands from Pearl's back and used it to wipe at her eyes under her frames. Pearl rested her head on Garnet's shoulder and sighed deeply. It was a soothing feeling, expelling all the breath from her body.

She wanted to ask what the future might hold, but she didn't know what questions to start with. It was probably better that Garnet chose when to reveal those things. The kiss she left on Pearl's forehead was nothing but a warm brush of lips, although valued all the same for its simplicity.

"Steven will be worried if we're not there when they get back," Garnet said, and she was putting on her mental armor again as she rose to her feet, an exercise so familiar to Pearl that she barely felt disappointed. Garnet had girded herself again for the fight, and Pearl would be there beside her, spear in hand. They'd promised that to Rose long ago, and now they promised it to each other, and to Steven and Amethyst. Garnet offered her a hand up, and they started walking back to the warp pad.

"Oh, and he's going to be so sticky, too," Pearl said. "Amethyst never remembers the napkins. I'll have to remind him to do the laundry."

"I can supervise that," Garnet said, and Pearl was surprised, but she didn't protest. She held tight to Garnet's elbow as the transporter took them away.


	6. my mother said when I was born my father swore we won the war

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For anon, for the prompt: Steven and Connie, presumed dead. A bit dark and chock full of things I think might happen in the future of the series.

When Pearl regenerated, she had no idea where Steven was.

She'd come back as soon as she could -- hadn't bothered to redesign her physical form beyond adding a breastplate -- she needed one again. She'd reformed in a hurry, even caring that that the star splashed across it wasn't perfectly centered. She drew her weapon as soon as she had hands, glancing around at the scene before her, and she didn't see Steven at all.

She was surrounded by bubbled gems and gem shards -- at least there was that, and none of them were rose quartz shards, she could tell at a glance. So her worst fear hadn't been realized, not yet, but Steven had been here with her -- she could see a few of his bright pink bubbles mixed in with hers -- and now he was gone. Where? She didn't see Connie either. Despite training Connie as well as she could, she'd never really wanted to mix Connie up in this -- she was a full human, after all. She'd promised to protect Steven, and perhaps that's what she was doing -- Pearl didn't see either of them.

"Steven!" she shouted. "Steven!"

There was still a fight ranging around here, and all her shouting did was call attention to the fact that she had reformed. It was a miracle that no one had bothered to shatter her gem in the chaos. Soon, she found use for the breastplate, and although every second the back of her mind was full of worries for Steven and Connie, her body moved in the way she'd practiced for thousands of years. She fought. She worked her way into the crowd. She saw Garnet's head rising above the gems falling to pieces around her.

"Garnet, have you seen Steven? Garnet!" she shouted. Garnet punched a Homeworld Gem, dodging her battle-ax as it fell, and twisted around to stand back-to-back with Pearl.

"I haven't seen him," Garnet said. "...I don't see him now. Future vision is only useful--"

She grabbed Pearl around her waist and swung her around. Pearl let her body arc, her spear pointed toward the Gem attacking Garnet. By the time the Gem noticed her mistake, it was too late for her.

"There's too much going on," Garnet continued. "We'll have to find him with regular vision. Come on."

They became Sardonyx, laying around herself with the strength of her war hammer, and then found Amethyst. There was no humor on Sardonyx's face today. After they filled her in, Sardonyx offered Amethyst a hand, and she took it and they began to dance. The more sensible Homeworld Gems retreated to the warp pad. The rest were quickly smashed and bubbled. Homeworld had been experimenting with fusion, but they'd never be as good at it as the Crystal Gems were. Alexandrite was focused, three minds becoming one mind searching for two people. She ducked down, searching with all of her eyes.

She found them, Connie curled around Steven from behind, both covered in dust and neither moving. She took one step towards them and fell to pieces. The Gems struck the ground and picked themselves up immediately, not caring for their own injuries. Garnet got there first, grabbing Steven by the shoulder. His arms were wrapped around his stomach and she pulled at him, trying to see his gem.

"Is he okay?!" Pearl's voice was high and worried as she bent over Connie, pulling a vial from her gem. It contained water from Rose's fountain and after feeling Connie's wrist for her quiet heartbeat, Pearl turned her over gently, pulling her away from Steven so she could see the state of her injuries. Even in her unconscious state, Connie resisted the movement; Pearl found that comforting.

"His gem is intact," Garnet said, picking Steven up and cradling him. He was limp in her arms, and so small.

"Steven!" Amethyst shouted into his ear. He didn't respond. Pearl handed her vial to Garnet and pulled out another one, their last. They were only meant as a stopgap before finding Steven and his healing powers or sending the injured back to the fountain. Lapis was waiting there to protect and assist. Peridot was doing her best to sabotage any Gem tech she could get her fingers on, and Jasper was however begrudgingly doing her best to protect Beach City. They had other allies here in the kindergarten, and the formerly corrupted Gems were just as worried, but they didn't disturb the tiny circle. They'd seen Alexandrite. They knew that there was a danger here they couldn't fight.

Garnet tilted Steven's head carefully and poured the vial down his throat. His gag reflex responded and he coughed himself into consciousness. Pearl couldn't stop crying as she did the same for Connie, who groaned and didn't open her eyes right away. Connie was holding onto Pearl's arm so hard that her grasp would have hurt a human, but Pearl barely noticed the possibility of pain. She was feeling a relief so strong that it ached in a different way.

"Is everyone okay?" Steven rasped. Amethyst hugged him hard, almost climbing into Garnet's lap herself.

Connie opened her eyes. "Steven!" she said, and then all five of them were holding onto each other for comfort in the midst of this desperation.

The ground rumbled, and then again. By the time they realize they were hearing steps, it was nearly too late. Steven threw up his shield at the last moment before the laserfire struck them. They'd never seen this fusion before, but she was tall and monstrous, body undulating, voice screaming with anger.

"Come on," Pearl said, coming to her feet and offering Amethyst and Connie a hand. Garnet lifted Steven and got up herself. Another wave of fire struck Steven's shield, pushing them all back into the dirt. The shield didn't waver.

"Stay together!" Steven called out, taking a step forward, and they took it with him.


	7. devil himself sat waving me by

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot and Yellow Diamond gen. For the prompt: a humor fic where Yellow Diamond investigates the earth internet and is shocked to see how a minor head turn has lead to all this shipping. This is just silly.
> 
> There are minor spoilers for Friend Ship.

"What did you say this is called?" Yellow Diamond asked in a dry, measured voice. Peridot scuffed a foot on the stone floor and then winced internally -- it was her new one, the nice one, and she really should try to keep it that way. She still couldn't believe that Yellow Diamond hadn't crushed her gem to dust after pulling her out of the failed Earth mission, especially considering that she and the traitors were the only ones who currently knew of Homeworld's failure to regain control of the Crystal system. Instead she'd been assigned to secretarial duties in Yellow Diamond's office for the time being, which turned out to be code for lengthy surprise debriefing sessions. 

"They call it shipping," Peridot said quickly, fumbling her fingers into a display screen that showed a static shot of a website on Earth's puny communication network. Yellow Diamond's name repeated again and again on the page, usually with a symbol that indicated an imagined romantic interest with another Gem, or sometimes even a human. Peridot found it kind of embarrassing, but Yellow Diamond wanted to know _everything_ about Earth that Peridot could glean. Of course she'd downloaded the Internet -- it was barely a blip on her internal storage. She'd learned a lot but didn't understand most of it. 

Gems didn't have romantic relationships, and they certainly didn't have physical ones like the ones lovingly described in great detail in these stories. The idea was anathema. Peridot had hardly been able to look at Garnet without shuddering, and that was before she'd read all these stories about Gems touching each other's orifices. 

"And to be clear, this was definitely a result of the message I sent?" Yellow Diamond asked for the third time. It had only been a few seconds of footage, her face in silhouette, her neck arched arrogantly. 

"Peridot, the ship will arrive shortly. Do not fail me," the message had said. It had been all that was necessary. While Peridot was tracking the ship's beacon and trying desperately to avoid the Crystal Gems' interference, the humans were writing pornography. Peridot had read all of it on her way back to Homeworld. It was disappointingly uninventive, but at least none of the humans had discovered their real master plan. Either that, or they hadn't uploaded it because they were too busy reproducing organically. Ugh. 

"Before then, they couldn't have known anything about you except your name," Peridot said. "You can thank Jasper for that." And, apparently, the special bird-watching cameras situated all over the beach that livestreamed the life cycle of a rare purple gallinule breeding pair onto the Internet. And sometimes alien invasions.

"Interesting," Yellow Diamond mused. "And disgusting. But perhaps we can use this information in some way. They might welcome me."

Peridot found that quite unlikely, but she wasn't going to contradict her leader. She was smarter than that. 

"Emerald should be here any moment for your appointment," she said, changing the subject entirely. 

"Reschedule her for tomorrow and call Tiger Eye. Tell her I need to see her immediately," Yellow Diamond said, disappearing back into her office. Peridot complied dutifully, glad that she was no long the center of attention, at least for now. 

Maybe later she'd have time to work on her own story where she saved Homeworld from disaster. That would rock the Internet to its core, but it was still a work in progress.


	8. the chosen roads it had to wander

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt: Connie and Steven trying to fight off a gem monster together. Pearl, Steven, and Connie gen, with hints of Steven/Connie.

When they reached the crossroads, the Crystal Gems paused and looked. Darkness stretched out in both directions. Pearl clasped her fingers together worriedly and glanced up at Garnet. Garnet was considering both paths in her quiet, even way. Finally, she shook her head.

"We'll have to split up," she said. Pearl's fingers tightened. She glanced from Connie and Steven to Garnet.

"Why don't you and Connie go back to the temple?" she suggested to Steven, without much hope that he'd agree. Connie adjusted her baldric, making sure that Rose's sword was carefully fastened, and shook her head. She reached out and took Steven's hand.

"Well, then," Pearl said, and sighed. "Shall we take the right passage?"

The children wouldn't let her lead, even when she used her pearl as a light source. Connie had a flashlight of her own. Garnet could do the same thing with Ruby's gem, so she wasn't worried about her and Amethyst -- they'd be okay. But this was Connie's first mission, and she still wasn't sure that taking her along had been a good idea. Steven was half-Gem -- he would need these skills. But Connie was entirely human and fragile, despite her great skill with a sword. She'd worked so hard to wield Rose's when Steven gave it to her, but even still it was too big for her.

It had been a long time since they had fought alongside humans, and that had not ended well for them. At least they died when they were shattered.

*

Steven had never really experienced claustrophobia, but the passageway got smaller and smaller as they went down it, and he kept glancing back at Pearl, expecting her to tell them to turn around and follow after Amethyst and Garnet. Pearl seemed lost in thought, and barely noticed when she began to need to slouch to fit through the passageway. Connie was having to do the same, and Steven knew he would soon too. There was nothing ahead of them but rough-hewn rock and the loudness of their feet on the natural gravel. 

A sudden flash of sickly green was the only warning they got that the Gem monster had appeared. Steven barely had time to throw up a bubble that the beast's teeth grated against as it roared its frustration. Pearl was awake then, grabbing both of them by their shoulders and yanking them back against her and drawing her spear. Her light flashed wildly at the ceiling of the passage as she looked around.

The beast oozed away, further into the darkness. They waited, but it didn't come back. Pearl frowned.

"We have to keep going," Steven said. "It's hurting. We need to bubble it."

So they went on, but when the passage narrowed so much they had to get down on their knees, Pearl said, "This isn't going to work. We're going to have to lure it out so we can fight it. This position is too vulnerable. Let's turn around. Steven, be sure to keep your shield at your back, just in case."

They'd gotten back far enough that they could stand completely upright when Garnet's voice echoed down the corridor.

"Pearl!" she shouted urgently, but it was too late, because there was a second beast that had been waiting for them to come close enough. It dropped down on Pearl from above with a horrible shriek and began yanking at her limbs.

Steven and Connie didn't have to think. Steven pulled Connie forward and Connie clutched Steven's shoulder, and then Stevonnie was standing there. They ran forth into battle, sword and shield at hand, and when the fight was done and the gem was bubbled, they brushed Pearl's hair out of her face and touched her gem.

"Are you okay?" they asked worriedly, and Pearl began to cry so they held her hand.


End file.
